"The one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period [is] contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development"
- Ronald Reagan

"I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act."
- Bill Gates

When companies apply for patent protection, they apply by country. If there's no market, they don't apply. As a result, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Uganda and much of Sub- Saharan Africa is a dead zone when it comes to patents.

Yet one person's dead zone is another person's opportunity. For a struggling economy in a developing nation, the mighty US patent system can be the largest how-to guide in the universe.